The easiest way to get started with green marketing is to take a step back from your business and perform a brief green marketing audit. You should already have many of the answers, but it’s in your best interest to ask yourself again and step outside of your comfort zone. You may find it beneficial to consult a qualified marketing professional who can help expose you to a whole new world of green marketing options.
Create your green marketing plan:
1. Perform a market analysis and establish your “ground.”
1. Where is your company in the market?
2. What is your competition doing?
2. Segment your business offerings by “who buys what.”
1. What do your customers have in common?
2. Are you offering too much?
3. Are you trying to be everything to everyone?
3. Determine your product/service market.
1. Is it priced appropriately?
2. Does it cost enough? Too much?
4. Identify your core “green” messages.
1. What green messages are you trying to convey to your customers?
2. What is the basic POINT behind your messages? (Note: These are NOT your taglines)
5. Outline what your core green “brand elements” should be/are.
1. What does green marketing specifically look like as applied to your company?
2. How do you want your customers to perceive your green marketing initiatives?
6. Determine if your web site is in line with your marketing objectives and target markets.
1. Is it up to date?
2. Does it offer the latest technologies?
3. Can you manage it yourself?
4. Is it up to the highest standards in technology?
5. Can you leverage the latest and greatest tools in new media?
6. What can you change?
7. Align your “green marketing plan” with your overall marketing objectives and target markets.
1. Where possible, use metrics to align the two plans.
2. Does your green marketing plan take advantage of the latest technologies?
3. Can you manage it yourself?
8. Determine the promotional areas in which you can get really creative/green.
1. Can you leverage your commitment to green to help you spread your message?
2. Which segments are going to care about your green marketing efforts?
3. How much money can you save?
4. How much money can you reallocate from previous methods to green and new freed-up
opportunities?
9. Plan for feedback.
1. How do you plan to get it?
2. What will you do with it once you get it?
With so much focus on green marketing, many companies try to hop on the bandwagon by launching green initiatives that are in essence “greenwashing” or “green sheen.” These terms are generally used when companies spend significantly more money or time advertising being green (that is, operating with consideration for the environment), rather than investing resources on genuinely environmentally sound practices.
This was excerpted from an article that originally appeared on www.evancarmichael.com. It was written by Laura Briere, founder and president of the World Green Business Association.
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